Pre-Roman and Roman Period flat scrapers made of bone in the territory of Poland

Bone tools are among the least studied artefacts, not only in the Przeworsk culture but in other regions of European Barbaricum as well. In the article, the focus is on one type of bone tool, flat scrapers, which have not as yet been sufficiently analysed. The first conclusion is that this category of finds is more widespread than previously assumed and has often been misinterpreted. One of the most interesting find-ings presented in the text concerns the function of those tools. Their function is reconstructed here based on the analysis of unpublished specimens recently discovered in Przeworsk culture settlements in the basins of the Nida and Nidzica Rivers, and on analysis of the published materials. Microscopic analysis of micro-traces was conducted in order to examine the proposed hypotheses. As a result, an interpretation of the spread, function, and chronology of scrapers made of bone is proposed